Max Lemke

Max Lemke (7 April 1895-29 May 1985) was a Generalmajor of the German Wehrmacht during World War II and the commander of the elite Hermann Goering Division from 9 February to 8 May 1945.

Biography
Max Lemke was born on 7 April 1895 in Schwedt, Brandenburg, German Empire, and he enlisted in the Imperial German Army in 1914. He left the army after World War I, but he rejoined the Wehrmacht in 1935 and rose in the ranks of the military. Lemke took part in the invasion of Poland in 1939 and in the fighting against the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa, and he led the 7th Panzer Division against the Red Army. In February 1945, he took command of the elite Hermann Goering Division, and he led it during the Battle of Bautzen and its failed attempts to break out of Soviet encirclement to surrender to the United States. Instead, he surrendered to the Red Army, and he spent a few years in a Red Army prison camp. He died in 1985 in Hanover, Lower Saxony, West Germany at the age of 90.